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auDA warns Australian businesses to be wary of American domain name organisation

Posted by on 7 March 2005

.au Domain Administration (auDA), the administrator of .au domain names, today issued a warning to all Australian businesses with domain names, and those likely to register domain names in the future, to be wary of an organisation trading as Federal Bureau of Domain Names (FBODN), http://www.fbodn.com.

auDA has been informed that FBODN has contacted several Australian businesses – including an internationally renowned Australian icon – falsely positioning itself as the global domain name administrator.

auDA understands that FBODN has told these Australian businesses that someone has applied to register their name in .biz but that FBODN has blocked the registration and is now able to offer the name in .biz to the Australian business.

Chris Disspain CEO of auDA said, “As far as auDA can ascertain, FBODN is not an official, or US Government-endorsed, administrator of .biz or any other domain name extension. As such, Australian businesses should be wary of any contact with FBODN.”

“Australian businesses should also be aware that anyone can register a .biz domain name. Additionally, those who own the comparable .com domain name extension are not able to veto the registration of the .biz extension by someone else.” Mr Disspain continued.

Despite FBODN’s web site being heavily branded with American icons, imagery and references to the US Federal Government, www. fbodn.com is registered to Michael Goodall – a resident of London, England.

“At this stage auDA and its international domain name administrator counterparts are still investigating FBODN. However, I stress again that all Australian businesses who are contacted by FBODN should act cautiously” Mr Disspain concluded.